The attorney general calls Tesla Arson Attacks “nothing less than domestic terrorism”

Washington – The attorney general Pam Bondi is calling the recent series of attacks with caused fires and vandalism against Tesla vehicles “nothing less than domestic terrorism” and promising hard punishments for perpetrators if they are trapped.

Bondi’s statement occurred after the last incident in which five Tesla vehicles They were damaged when a fire began in a Tesla collision center in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning. That was the last of a wave of incidents aimed at the Electric Vehicle Company, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

“This was an attack directed against a Tesla installation,” said Dori Koren, Sheriff Assistant to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Together with the vehicles on fire, the authorities said that the word “resistance” was painted by spray through the facilities doors and three rounds of shooting were fired to the additional teslas. The suspect approached the business with black clothing and is believed to wear Molotov cocktails and a firearm to carry out his attack, police said.

The officials received notice that an individual had “burned several vehicles in the parking lot and caused property damage.”

Police and the FBI’s joint terrorism task force are investigating this incident, which believe it was an isolated attack. The authorities are still looking for a suspect.

Two Tesla Cybertrucks also caught fire in a concessionaire in Kansas City, Missouri, Monday night, according to the Kansas City Police Department.

The vehicles, the concessionaires and the load stations of Tesla have been destroyed, suffered a fire and faced protests in Last weeks Since the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, began his work at the White House leading the government’s efficiency department, or Doge.

In Tuesday’s statement, Bondi said: “The swarm of violent attacks against Tesla’s property is no less than domestic terrorism.” In some of the cases, he said that the Department of Justice is accusing the perpetrators of crimes who have five -year mandatory minimum sentences.

“We will continue investigations that impose serious consequences to those involved in these attacks, including those that operate behind the scene to coordinate and finance these crimes,” he said in the statement.

In the Kansas incident, a police officer in the Vio Sumo area from a Cybertruck at a Tesla concessionaire at State Line Road shortly before midnight. The officer tried to get the flames using a fire extinguisher, but the fire extended to a second cybertruck parked next to the original, police said.

The Kansas City Fire Department ordered the Pump and Arson unit to help on the scene, the Fire Department said. The authorities were able to turn off the flames and vehicles were “covered with a fire blanket to avoid reabsification,” said the fire department.

“The circumstances are under investigation, but preliminary the fire is being investigated for the potential to be a fire,” the police said in a statement on Monday.

No arrests have been made for this incident, police said. The FBI is helping the Kansas City Police Department in this investigation.

This follows a wave of similar incidents that have occurred throughout the country in recent weeks.

Last week, they shot “more than a dozen” at a Tigard dealership in Tigard, Oregon, according to Kelsey Anderson, the public information officer of the Tigard Police Department.

In addition, three Teslas were destroyed in Didham, Massachusetts, on March 11, according to the Didham Police Department. The authorities said that “the words had been painted with spray” in two cybertrucks of Tesla, with the four tires of the trucks and a model s of Tesla, “according to the reports, damaged.”

Protests against the company have also occurred in concessionaires throughout the country. The treasurer of the state of Illinois, Michael Frerichs, told ABC News the manifestations and falling shares of the company that have fallen almost 48% this year ” (Musk) Time in Doge “.

“It has been a distraction for the company and has been a problem for the brand,” Frerichs said.

In recent weeks, four senior company officials have sold $ 100 million in sharesAccording to the presentations of the US stock and values commission. UU.

Musk, the owner of X, He said Monday That their companies “are excellent products that people love and that I have never physically hurt anyone, so why hatred and violence against me?”

“Because I am a deadly threat to the mental parasite of awakening and the humans that it controls,” Musk said in X.

Musk has also published reactions that criticized the previous attacks of Tesla, including one That said, those responsible for Las Vegas’s attack are “terrorists and must be treated accordingly.”

A Tesla spokesman did not immediately respond to the request for ABC News comments.

ABC News Jack Moore contributed to this report.